How to roast your own coffee at home

Most of us have been taught that a coffee bean should be dark and oily, but in fact this look is the result of the longest possible roasting process. By the time a bean hits the darkest point it has lost most of its volatile aromatic compounds, and thus its complexity. Coffee roasted to lower levels has a higher acid content, less bitterness, and a more “rounded” flavor. Roasting to the darkest level “mutes” the coffee, says Wood, getting rid of the potentially troublesome high and low points. Roasting at home allows the coffeephile to taste “flavors you’ve never tasted in coffee,” enthuses Wood.